Pulling Open the Flower

On week three of our Shattering the Meme novena, we explore the concept of creativity.  Creativity cannot be forced, nor can it emerge fully formed from the depths of our minds.  Unlearning the idea that hours spent equals quality of output to force an outcome is the lesson of this week.

As creatives, it’s ingrained in us from our earliest years that we are somehow supposed to be masters of everything.  The image of the superstar sole proprietor who conquers the word is dangled before us and we’re made to feel as if we are doing something wrong if we can’t achieve it.  From those first weeks in studio classes, the all-nighter is introduced. The idea behind it is that we need to work hard, really hard, at being creative.  We are not taught techniques for collaboration, or pulling in ideas from other industries or arts.  We are not taught how to understand the needs of the people we design for.  No, Instead the message is that it all must come from within.  And if the great idea won’t just open up out of our mind and bloom, we need to start picking at the bud, much like an ant on a peony.

Sounds strangely logical, except that creativity doesn’t work that way.  The worst thing you can do is to put performance pressure on it, instead of letting it flow, to close down its sources instead of expanding its horizons.  This meme has never served anything but our collective egos as it takes our self-esteem on a perpetual roller coaster ride.

Stop the suffering
Because we have been taught the behavior pattern of hard work, it feels wrong when an idea comes too easily.  We analyze it, reconstruct it, over-embellish it, reject it.  All in an attempt to make the act of creation something that requires tremendous effort.  We need to recognize that what we have been conditioned to feel “right” about in the design process is actually only what feels familiar to ourselves and our profession.  It gets propagated as “the way.”  In fact, what really ends up being propagated is stress inducing behavior. So, we think that if we are not under stress, we must not be very creative.  This is somewhat like planting a shade-loving plant in full sun, assuming that your shadow as you constantly tend it will be enough.

Live in the now
Creativity is about being present, not trying to predict the future based on the past.  When you are in the zone and are in a state of pure consciousness, nothing except the present moment matters.  You stop imposing past limiting beliefs and letting fears about what might happen restrict you, and you just go with it.  No over-thinking, no judgement.  Just think what would happen if you gave yourself more opportunities to disconnect the outcome from possibility. You might even realize that what you or your client thought the outcome should be wasn’t the best way to solve the problem. Stop ignoring all of the other ideas flowering in the garden in your focus on the one plant that hasn’t yet bloomed.

Allow the unfolding
In our “I am enough” mentality, we believe that we can go directly from intention to outcome.  We think that we control the outcome solely through our efforts, and if we didn’t get the result we wanted, we must have either not worked hard enough or made some mistake.  Not only does this corrode self esteem, it sets us up to shut down opportunities that might lead us to an even better result. You can plant the seeds, and tend the garden, but the plant will grow at its own rate, take its own form.  Building the framework for your intent and ideas to grow and then letting them take shape organically will lead you to the best possible outcome.  Relinquish control of what the outcome needs to look like and trust that you have set the right things in motion.

Shatter the Meme:
Allow yourself to detach from the outcome and instead focus on the intent behind the work you are doing.  What opportunity for growth can you find in the problem?  What is really motivating your client to take action?  What kind of environments do people really need? By asking these questions of yourself, your team and your client, you are able to ensure you are solving the right problems and building the right framework.  Resist the need to be a control freak and remember that when you pull open the flower, you usually spoil it.  Step back and let things unfold instead of trying, in your impatience, to force the outcome.

Homemaking: Urban living meets affordability

Top: the Micro-Unit Prototype
Above: The What's IN team: from back moving left to right: 
Ben Stracco, Mika Gilmore, Lisa Walden, Marcus Hamblin, 
Fred Kramer, B.K. Boley, Tamara Roy, Blake Goodwin, 
Zach Pursley, Ruthie Kuhlman, Meredith Powell, 
Melissa Miranda, Aeron Hodges, Derrick Nickerson, 
Michelle Kim, Quinton Kerns, Dan Connolly, Chris Neukamm.

We take for granted the amenities around us.  We are (mostly) warm, safe and dry, yet often feel discontented with our space, not because it fails to provide for us, but because it fails to enrich us.  Whether it's that cookie cutter subdivision home with its oddball "feature" spaces, the dreary big city walk-up apartment that barely meets any kind of building code or something in between, so few of us have the opportunity to live in a space that really supports how we want to live in it.  But what if the reason our living spaces fail us is because we don't have the right expectations for them?  What if you could throw out everything you thought you knew about how to live in a home and started over?  The subject of my master's thesis at the University of Arizona was the impact of telecommuting on our understanding of the home.  Part of the research I did involved looking at the evolution of our understanding of a home.  Most of us are stuck in a model that comes straight out of the Victorian era, where urban equaled bad and the domestic sphere needed to be clearly separated from the sphere of work.  But we don't live in the Victorian era anymore, so why should our spaces?

What's IN is trying to answer that question.  This exciting urban housing research project includes the Boston design groups ADD Inc and One-In-3 as well as MapLab and local mosaic artists Artaic and has undertaken a study of the demographics and sociographics of urban housing today and proposes ideas on how to best meet the live/work needs of young professionals.  It's a national trend that young college graduates are looking for the urban lifestyle in ever increasing numbers.  So are aging baby boomers.  To the extent that a city can provide the housing they seek, that city can prevent a "brain drain" of young, innovative and educated professionals.  So what stops them?  Affordability and amenity are the two big issues.  This group is attracted to the vibrant, culturally rich and diverse environment found in urban neighborhoods, but not the price tag that necessarily comes with it.  What's IN's solution: the Micro-Unit.

Defined as a single family dwelling unit ranging from 250-300 square feet, the Micro-Unit has stripped living down to its essential elements; bathroom, kitchenette, storage and living/sleeping areas.  Borrowing a page from European and Asian models (and ancient Roman city life for that matter), What's IN offers the larger spaces we have been conditioned to believe we need within our dwellings outside of them in the form of communal social spaces.  This not only allows the units themselves to be more affordable, but fosters the kind of neighborliness that studies show keep our communities safe and vibrant.  Says Quinton Kerns, one of the group's founders, "With minimal/durable use materials we can minimize cost of construction and with the re-imagined unit sizes we can provide more density within a floor than what is currently offered with most market rate units. The Micro-Unit seeks to tackle the ongoing problem of affordability in urban housing coupled with the opportunity to foster a social revival in our local communities."

This is real research- the group conducted polls, looked at product options, studied prefabrication techniques, investigated design precedents from all over the world, and looked at real estate issues.  They also partnered with business and civic leaders to talk about the issues involved in making their concept take off.  What did they learn?  Affordability trumps all.  In perhaps a crushing blow to most designers, futuristic, gadgety, multi-tasking furniture was soundly rejected by the focus group.  Based this information, they determined an ideal unit size (300 sf) and features to include in a prototype microunit, with smart features important to urbanites, including bike storage and casework that could be user-built a la IKEA to save money.  A mockup of the unit was then constructed by the What's IN team.  To get the widest possible range of feedback, the mockup went on tour at prominent Boston venues ABX 2012 at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center, the Atlantic Wharf lobby adjacent to the BSA Space, and The Modern Theater at Suffolk University. The group created a survey to allow mockup viewers to weigh in on how well they think such a living arrangement would or wouldn't work for them, in addition to providing key demographic information to help inform the development of future microunit initiatives.  "The unit has been donated to Suffolk University so that students and faculty can utilize this model to engage the business and academic communities in and around Boston as this movement for approachable living becomes a reality," says Kerns. "What's IN is currently venturing into a deeper research initiative focusing on the social/community impacts for this new housing typology by means of further crowd sourcing, community surveying, community outreach, and a continued discussion with policy makers at City Hall. We are looking at displaying our findings at this year’s ABX 2013 with the ultimate goal of having some solid development in the works by the year’s end." 

The group's Tamara Roy presented What's IN's work to date in late March 2013 at a housing Forum at Suffolk University. Her presentation powerfully illustrates just how much a shortage of affordable housing impacts the city, and the innovative approach to solving this problem that the group developed.  "We believe in the power of tiny things and the Micro-Unit speaks to that idea," says Kerns. "Through our research we found that city dwellers are not only willing to share living, eating, and social areas within their living environments, but they really want these amenities to be more social! And through this call for more social living we are faced with a great opportunity for innovation. Diversity + Density + Interaction = Knowledge Spillover...by the nature of what they are, micro-units foster innovation!"

Key What's IN Players:
Tamara Roy: Senior Associate Principal at ADD Inc and “Mother of the Micro-Unit” in Boston.
Aeron Hodges: Designer at ADD Inc, Co-Founder of the WHATS IN initiative and target demographic of the emerging families.
Quinton Kerns: Designer at ADD Inc, Co-Founder of the WHATS IN initiative and target demographic of the single young professional.
Fred Kramer: President of ADD Inc, Supportive Powerhouse and target demographic of the empty nester.
Chris Neukamm: Designer at ADD Inc, Committee member of WHATS IN
Michelle Kim: Designer at ADD Inc, Committee member of WHATS IN
Dan Connolly: Project Manager at STA, Committee member of WHATS IN and member of ONEin3
Blake Goodwin: Director of Operations for Artaic, Committee member of WHATS IN and member of ONEin3

Be your next restoration/preservation project

“Creativity is as much about restoration as challenging yourself,” I thought one Sunday morning while feeling utterly weighed down by a bunch of stuff I had to do.  The creative mind is just not built to slog, yet as creative individuals we often get ourselves dug in so deep with our big ideas or constant ideation that slog we do.  I posted my thought on the Patron facebook page  and twitter the following day and was a bit surprised by how much that statement resonated.  In an interesting bit of synchronicity, I also happened to read posts on three other blogs that I follow with a similar theme.  Apparently it’s been a long spring.  I know it has for me.  Since February, I have been so busy between work, blogging for both this site and Urban Times, getting feng shui certified, and general life management (taxes anyone) that I feel as though I can barely come up for air.  So in the interests of opening the collective windows of our minds to let a little sunshine in, I have listed my top six personal restoration projects:

Recognize the difference between struggle and effort
As architects, we're no stranger to long hours.  But there is a difference between the creative effort that flows from us and the stuff that feels way to much like work.  Working in "the zone" can be incredibly energizing.  Feeling oppressed by your to-do list is a depleting struggle.  When we are in struggle mode, we feel that we have to burn the candle at both ends just to keep on top of things. If you are struggling, you are working hard, not smart and you should stop that right now. 

Fun is inspirational
Sometimes your best idea for a project may come from observing a food vendor at a carnival.  Not only does having fun provide us with restoration, it also gets our brains channeled in a different way- which is the very essence of creativity.  Here's how it works:  When you are noodling a design problem, you never really stop thinking about it, it lives in the back of your mind.  When your thoughts stop flowing (struggle mode) and you try to force them, the brain gets locked into a nonproductive static loop.  When you go do something else, your mind is free to play and suddenly you find yourself seeing parallels between the problem you are trying to solve and all kinds of (seemingly) incongruous things.

Put yourself on the schedule
Haven't had a haircut in months, got a knot of tension in your neck that you've been downing Advils like candy to work around?  You are ignoring self care.  Just as a building needs to be maintained, so does your body, mind and spirit.  When we put ourselves last, we operate from a mindset of depletion.  This restricts access to our creative flow, impacting the way we relate to our clients coworkers, even friends and family.  Grumpy, energy-sapped you is not necessarily even going to want to attend that industry lunch, let alone be a networking superstar who walks away with a pocketful of business cards.  Some of your best contacts can be those casual ones, like the woman you see each week at yoga, the manager of your salon, your dentist, the mother of your kid's play date.  Seek out and frequent restorative care and activities of all stripes and take the time to invest in your relationships there.

Abolish prerequisites
Perhaps it was the experience of taking college courses that got us here.  We so often feel that we have to choose between the things we would like to do and all the required activities of life. Chores (both at work and at home) are NOT a prerequisite to any other activity.  When it comes to work/life balance it's not "either/or", but "both /and." I personally struggle a lot with this one.  I find that it helps to plan to reward myself with at least one thing a day in order to keep my energy levels up and to try and take a break and switch gears whenever I catch myself getting stuck in the struggle.    

Ditch the victim within
When you feel diminished and small, that telegraphs in your actions and interactions.  Being expansive allows you to have a positive outlook, and channel your creativity.  It also draws others to you like a magnet.  That interaction with others in turn leads to more creativity.  Walk away from Victimville, home of oppressive depleting tasks and unrecognized effort and choose to empower your efforts.  Get the help you need to slog through the tasks that deplete or depress you, be selective in your commitments, seek out and ask for what contributes to your life and career goals.  Are you doing the work of your draftsman?  Ask yourself why you feel you need to do this: lack of trust in their work (fire or train them better), perfectionism on your part (done is better than perfect), or a way to avoid your own fears or hesitations on taking on creative challenges (take the leap).  If you truly find yourself drawn to chores when faced with a big project or challenge, think about why you are subconsciously choosing to be a victim of busy work instead of giving yourself permission to shine.  Then go do something fun instead of scheduling those fixtures. 

Be outcome focused
In a perfect world, we'd all live with such clarity of purpose that every action we took would be advancing that purpose.  In real life, we get distracted.  It's a lot easier to put effort into an activity when we understand how completing it will contribute to achieving a long or short term goal. Staying result-focused helps us get through the tedious work, because we can see where it ends.  It also helps us to trim the unnecessary activities we often take on because we assume we have to, but haven't fully thought through why. When you are outcome focused, you honor your own effort and the efforts of others.

Just like a building, our figurative paint can peel, our mental light bulbs need to be changed and our air needs to be circulated to keep from breeding mold spores.  We can also find that upon closer inspection, we need a little remodel of our lives to keep on track with our higher purpose.  Take on your life as your next project without fear of bold moves- making space is what you do.

Architecture for the Everyman

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Salomé Reeves for her (x)Architect series.  One of the questions she had for me was something I hadn’t thought about all that much, but clearly should have.  Salomé asked, “Why do you think architects are often conceived as expensive accessories in the eyes of the general public?”  This question gets to the root of a conundrum that many of us have: we want to do exciting designs, but our potential client base is just a fraction of the population of people who wish to acquire, build or alter space, with only a limited subset of them committed (financially and otherwise) to high design.  I wondered: why don’t average people consult an architect more often?

The answer is probably the same as why they choose to file their own taxes instead of hiring an accountant, use online legal services instead of seeing an attorney, apply home remedies before making a doctor’s appointment, and fix their own leaky pipe instead of calling the plumber.  It’s easier, faster and more convenient to take care of things yourself instead of bringing in a professional.  Actually, if we take a look at human history, the idea of being a jack of all trades is far more prevalent than the idea of specializing.  People have been building their own homes for millenia.  In antiquity, architects, when they are so acknowledged, were very high status individuals who worked for the likes of the Pharaoh or Emperor.  Even in the age of master builders, and the emergence of the architect as a professional during the Renaissance, talents were reserved for a client base of the rich, the royal and the religious.  Perhaps the historical status of these patrons as well as the fact that works commissioned by them were intended to inspire awe has gone to our collective heads.  When we see architecture for the masses, it’s often in the form of some grand utopian vision.  It’s no wonder that the masses have soundly rejected these visions and continued to resonate with their traditional understandings of home, neighborhood and city.

The market share of the everyman requires a whole different paradigm on the way we understand design services.
People have always been able to build their own spaces. In today’s world, the developer has taken over for the do-it-yourselfer of the past. Expectations are not particularly high for space because most people don’t know what they don’t have. If your house looks pretty much like you expect a house to look and you have a nice lawn and nice decor inside, you feel good about it. Same thing with your business. A custom architect-designed home is just not something that could ever be affordable to most people - the design time alone would be exorbitant. And as an architect, we would have to take this time in order to deliver a good product.

But what if we didn't?  What if instead of looking at a traditional scope of services, and grousing that we can't do it cheaper, we instead delivered services that appealed to the affordability and convenience of the self-made project? We need to get on the other end of the innovation curve.  If we want people to appreciate our work, we must first help them begin to demand better, then find ways to make our work more available. This may mean that we create a kit of parts and some You-Tube videos about what to do with them and let people play. They’d still be paying us for a product and service, but it would be a whole lot more affordable. I also think that there would be a greater appreciation of design if people had more ability to modify their space to get it to work best for them. They’d stop settling for environments where they actually have to develop work-arounds to function and start noticing how and why other people choose to configure their space in a different way.

I have posted a poll on facebook to allow readers to weigh in on their view of accessibility in architecture.  Please visit  and let our community know whether you think we should redefine who we include in our client base and how to best go about reaching this new audience.

The Architect Brain- and How it Holds Us Back

We are trained as architects to be hyper-focused on detail.  We scrutinize relationships among elements, fret over details of code, think about every device that will be installed on a wall.  We draw finishes and juxtapositions of materials to the nth degree.  This same level of, well, obsession, gets applied to the way we operate.  Although we outwardly say that it’s a practice and that we can’t be held to a standard of perfection, we hold ourselves to that standard and react (at least inwardly) with shame when an error or omission occurs.  We condition our clients to expect perfection and implement all kinds of safeguards and quality control measures to “guarantee” mistakes won’t happen.  But the bottom line is that it’s about control.  We think that if we monitor every action of our staff, clients and contractors that we can swoop down like a hawk as the least sign of indiscretion and right the wrong.  That’s exhausting.  Furthermore, when was the last time it actually worked? 

If we were building the same building on very similar sites over and over again, we could just about perfect it over time. But most of the time, what we are doing in design is creating something from nothing.  We have developed a schizophrenic architect’s mind that allows us to be creative (embracing change) yet detail –oriented (resistant to change and looking for a right answer that can be applied formulaically).  Unfortunately, our creative mind does not win out often enough.  We ask of clients or superiors, “what do you want me to do?” and train our interns by saying, “this is how you do it.”  Then we become controlling about every detail of performance, documentation and implementation.

In an industry defined by disruptive change, we can take a cue from several recent neuroscience studies about how to deal with it creatively instead of procedurally.  Because architecture is really all about ideas.  A recent article in Strategy and Business magazine  by David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz gives some really great insight into how to let go of fears and start making amazing buildings.  Here’s how to deal with taking the leap:

1.  Command attention by eliminating distractions so the entire project team is focused on the information being presented.  Engaging your audience makes them stakeholders in ideas as they are developed.
2.  Create a compelling vision of the project and why certain design characteristics make a difference in how the building will support its users.  The authors call this mental mapping, and it shapes the expectations and attitudes of our audience, allowing them to have moments of insight that forge new neural connections.
3.  Sustain the focus.  Keeping creative or innovative approaches in the consciousness of the project team (daily is recommended) helps the new vision to become “the filter through which every decision is made.”  Isn’t this our dream for every project- to lock into the owner’s vision and support it with an amazing design that makes the lives of all who experience it better?  Think about why this so often breaks down (or fails to even get started) on most projects.  Now think about how you can articulate and sustain focus on your project.

The devil is in the details
It’s time to perform an exorcism.  Our obsession with detail sets us up for both madness and failure.

The Art in Craft

I wanted to be an artist for almost as long as I could remember- way before it ever occurred to me to be an architect.  And, while I found the process of building models to be rather hateful (not to mention somewhat perilous), I made my peace with it during those hours spent in studio, learning the zen of making several light, carefully precise scores instead of trying to rip through a material in one slice.  My love of art made preparing presentation drawings for a crit as much fun as design, and I experimented with a different style and even different media for each project.

However, we no longer practice architecture as a craft, but as a concept. From my very first internship, I was drawing on a computer, except for those rare moments when I could do a hand rendering for a presentation.  I found myself expressing my creative side more digitally too, migrating from drawing and painting to photography and quickly on to digital images that I could manipulate on the computer.  I still valued the handmade, though, and would export these images to craft items large and small, but now for more utilitarian instead of purely artistic purposes.  It was kind of fun to be able to meld the 3-D world with the added capabilities of digital. Then I had kids and sick parents and barely had time to keep up with life.  Handmade cards morphed into store-bought ones and if I couldn’t find it off the shelf, I didn’t bother with it.

This year, I have decided to make a commitment to art and craft as a means of reclaiming my own identity.  I made a painting for the first time in more years than I care to think about with my husband as part of a fun exercise (he needs to get back in touch with his inner artist too).  Then I decided to design and make our Christmas cards this year.  While I love to dabble in graphic design, what makes these cards special is the fact that the artwork is a painting I commissioned from myself.  High art, it’s not.  Craft and artistic expression it is.  Best of all, I had a lot of fun making it.  It is a digital painting, but created using painterly techniques one stroke at a time. Once the cards were designed and printed 3 up on a page, it was time to cut them out.  I used an X-acto blade for the first time in way too long and found it surprisingly satisfying.  This tool, one the bane of my existence, then a secret weapon for all kinds of crafty undertakings, had lain at the bottom of my art bin for years.  Scissors, while nowhere near as precise, had become the lazy substitute.  I took an odd pleasure out of having to get out my cutting mat, precisely line up an edge with a steel ruler, and once again make the series of scores that result in a precise cut.  It was mindless yet mindful all at the same time and I realized how much I missed this kind of work. 

Challenge yourself to a greater expression of your creativity and to bring out your inner artisan in the coming year.  Not just for your life as an architect but for your whole creative person.  The art of craft is something not to be lost, even if we move seamlessly between digital and 3-D life to invent new processes. We are not virtual beings, but physical ones who do our best work when we don’t forget how to translate the ephemeral and conceptual back to the tactile. 

I wish all of you a happy and wonderful Christmas and a 2012 filled with possibilities.  Please leave a comment to share your aspirations for cultivating more creativity in your life in the upcoming year.

Telling a Story: the Art of Presentation

The idea is complex, but the explanation must be clear, simple and concise.  It's all your clients will listen to.  The art of storytelling is something that most architects never learn.  Instead, during our education, we model pompous intellectualism, poetically making nonsensical archispeak statements while wearing black turtlenecks.  Of course in studio, there often is no client and no real story, only our personal filter for solving the assigned problem.  In practice, our client becomes our audience and whether we are auditioning for the part, or holding a design meeting, we can never forget to perform for them. 

We all love a good story and clients are eager to pull up a chair and hear your take on them and their project; they want an introduction and a plot line that builds suspense and, of course, a good ending.  They are looking to be drawn in, yet are prepared to tune out, doodling, checking their mobile device or just staring off in the distance.  You have to be compelling and your points have to be memorable in order for you to lead clients deeper into the understanding of the solution or even the design process that you are proposing.  There is no project or idea that can't be distilled down to a very simple explanation of just a few sentences that convey its core premise and purpose.  The few minutes you spend presenting an idea can form the basis of working relationships and the direction of a project for months or years to come.  Tips to get it right the next time you tell a story:

Set the table

Getting right down to business in a presentation is jarring.  Your audience of busy people not only have their own agendas for this project, but they also have heads swimming with all kinds of other information related to that last email they got, how to prepare for this afternoon's meeting, who will pick their kid up for soccer practice tonight.  If you launch right into things, the emotional uneveness of your audience will affect their ability to absorb and respond to you.  On the other hand, if you warm them up with an introduction and build to the purpose of today's meeting first, you will have a calmer more centered group of people reacting to consistent data regarding the project (not their individual agendas).

Don't overqualify
I have seen people so concerned about being misinterpreted that they break the continuity of every third sentence to explain their exact choice of words.  This is beyond irritating to the person who just wants to hear your thoughts already and reserve judgement for later.  If you find yourself doing this, you probably haven't set up what you need to say properly in the first place.  Either that or you are using words that are so inflammatory or ambiguous that they require a parenthetical explanation.

Play the emotional card

The most jaded skeptic still can be touched by building an emotional connection to an idea.  The passion you bring to a presentation extends to the rationale used for every idea you are trying to convey.  Lists of ideas are boring, connecting ideas to deeper more basic and universal human needs is interesting.  Nobody cares that you juxtaposed orthagonal elements or aligned with the city grid.  They do care that the entry to the space creates a ritual that helps tie the cardinal directions to the process of beginning and ending an experience cycle in their building.  It might be really cool that your lobby functions as a sundial, but have the sunlight illuminate things related to the use of the space and you have a design element that is a keeper even during value engineering.

The best piece of presentation advice is to be yourself and speak as if you were telling a story.  Stories create a personal connection, allow you to relax, be more informal and most importantly, allow even the grumpiest critic in your audience to relate to you.

Jump: A Vertical Path to Design Genius

I remember as an architecture student treading through the crushing hours of work thinking that once I graduated and started work, that things would be easier.  "Once you leave at the end of the workday," I reasoned, "you're done."  Oh how misguided I was.  But not for the reasons you might think.  Sure, clients can be unpredictable and deadlines can loom large.  But really, it's about the quest to improve yourself that keeps the line between work and life so fuzzy, even occasionally unbalanced.  I recently listened to an excellent presentation by Joshua Foer for the 99% entitled Step Outside Your Comfort Zone and Study Yourself Failing about the pitfalls we all encounter in our quest to do great things.  Certainly none of us sets out to be mediocre.  However, the day to day effort of meeting deadlines and being productive can leave no room for visionary thinking.  Unless you make room, that is. 

Foer talks about what separates experts from the rest of the pack and how reach beyond something he terms the “OK Plateau,” that place where we are good enough that we can put ourselves on autopilot regarding a set of tasks.  It was this OK Plateau that I was misguidedly longing to reach because I felt overburdened and overwhelmed by the challenges of architecture school.  But life on the Plateau is, well, boring.  The prospect of an entire career of that is bleak beyond words.  If you are feeling discontent with your career, it’s most likely that you’ve been stranded on that Plateau a little too long, for whatever reasons.  It’s time to jump:

An architects work is never done
No matter how many awards you win or celebrated you become, you are only as good as your last project.  True experts never allow themselves to get in a rut, they constantly challenge themselves to push beyond their comfort zone and explore new aspects of design, whether is experimenting with new materials, technologies or paradigms. They earn new credentials and don’t need AIA or State licensure requirements to seek out continuing education.

Find mentors for your whole person
No one is an expert in the exact same set of skills as another person.  Who you are, the unique perspective you bring to being an architect, needs to be nurtured as much as your more stereotypical skills.  This is why you need to cultivate expertise in all the facets of life that spark your passion.  Get in touch with your inner polymath.  What dimensions can an architect who is also a potter, sculptor and master chef bring to a project vs. one who is a hiker, photographer and karate blackbelt?  What about one who is also a certified nutritionist and has a degree in psychology?Scientific evidence has shown that you actually feed you creativity by indulging in a diverse set of interests.  A trip to the art museum, or the football stadium,  will do more for your next project crunch than spending four more hours hunched over your computer drawing.  It makes you far more interesting at cocktail parties, too.

Take yourself seriously
Architects are often accused of being pompous, looking down their over-designed glasses with disdain at the mere mortals they suffer to have around them who “just don’ get it.”  That’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about really believing that what you have to offer the world is so important that you never stop finding ways to make things better.  Don’t just design because it feels right, prove that it is right, never stop researching and testing your ideas about how people use space.  Study the people, the micro-culture, the tasks they perform, the preconceptions you all are bringing to the problem solution that you should question and perhaps throw out.  Finally, just like any good science experiment, never stop analyzing your outcomes. What worked (and how could it have worked better)? What did not perform as expected and why?  What new problems emerged through your design solution?  If you need to bring in someone else to help you evaluate your performance do so.  This can be as simple as inviting another member of your firm to do a postmortem for you, or as complicated as hiring and outside expert.  Then, listen to their criticism and use it to make yourself an even better architect.

True experts do not fear failure, they fear stagnation.

Buddy, can you spare a design?

Are you an idea-hoarder?  Do you hold back waiting for the most opportune project or presentation to share your best thoughts?  Worse, do you withhold your creativity for when you’ve locked into a contract? Perhaps the urge to compete is hardwired into us as a survival mechanism.  We see the world of design as a finite pie and feel that somehow maneuvering to prevent others from getting a piece means there will be more (or any) left for us.  I even had a boss who once said, “it’s not so much that we win the job, as that others lose.” 

I don’t even know where to begin on the shortsightedness of this kind of red ocean thinking.  What it really shows is a lack of belief in the compelling power of your ideas. Fear that they might be pirated away and someone else will profit from your inspiration. Instead of talking about ideas, we do what I like to call defensive marketing and attempt to show a prospective client how much we outrank the competition via any number of self-serving metrics.  This is your wake up call: they don’t care. Since your competition is probably making the same unfavorable comparisons with you, all praise or criticism become neutralized.  Clients will really select an architect based on their ideas, including those that can positively affect their processes and bottom line.

Ideas are valuable, but only when they are shared.  What you are sharing is your ability to listen, gather and synthesize information and creatively interpret it to make an environment:
Your ideas are what differentiate you
1.  They are the personal connection that shows a client that you get it
2.  They are what showcase your individual personality and likability (a very underestimated criteria for architect selection).
3.  They speak to your culture and work process more than any marketing lingo ever could.

Your ideas inspire your clients to dream bigger
1.  They ask clients to question their own assumptions
2.  They make someone think differently about a problem
3.  They help to define a problem in a clear, concise way (and maybe even shed light on the fact that the client is trying to solve the wrong problem).
4.  They show what is possible.

Your ideas grow, stretch and multiply when you share them
1.  They are a renewable resource. No matter how many ideas you share, your mind will make more
2.  They create a flow of energy and creativity that grows in value
3.  They are the key to access old markets run by old ideas
4.  They enrich us by expanding our inspiration, reach and vision

Don’t hold back. Creativity and innovation is not a zero sum game.  There is always room for change and improvement. When you hoard your ideas, no one can benefit from them, not even you.

Halos and Horns: How being bad makes us good designers

So far during this novena, we’ve looked at external things that affect our creativity; manipulative coworkers/bosses, life events that affect our health or well being, the personal and professional demands of daily life.  In week four, we will begin looking at ways we limit ourselves.

For architects, every day is Judgement Day.  We constantly measure our work and ourselves against everyone else, endlessly critiquing, even sometimes feeling threatened by others’ success. We style ourselves after our heroes and forget to be introspective enough to build our own true, original identity. How many personal armageddons have arisen from pure ego and a desire to “make it” getting in the way of true happiness and success?  My wise little teabag gave me a reminder today of just how much opportunity we miss by doing that. The paper on the end of the string contained this statement, “When ego is lost, limit is lost.  You become infinite, kind and beautiful.” So if we are stuck in a world of ego imposed “shoulds” which hold us down while paradoxically making us feel that we are doing the right thing, how do we know when/which obligations and expectations to let go of?  How bad can (not should) we really let ourselves become?

The devil made me do it
This was one of my favorite claims when, as a child, I was caught doing something like, say,  writing with a Sharpie on my parent’s designer wallpaper.  The “devil” prompted me to some very instructional, creative and fun projects, which unfortunately often also caused some level of damage or destruction.  Oops.  But who is this devil?  We’re not talking Lord of all Evil here in any sense.  No, this imp was simply my creative mind asking “what if?”  The child’s mind is not so strapped down by a feeling of what should be that it judges itself.  Free from expectations, and often unaware of all of society’s rules, it explores cause and effect, linking seemingly disparate elements together to make something that never was.   Our ego is the source of should. Challenge yourself today to do one thing that you normally would consider deviant and see what fun, and revelations, result.
Know what you want and claim it
Our biggest faults as creatives are guilt and self doubt.  When was the last time you really explored your motives for living life?  Chances are that if you did, you would find a whole lot of activity spurred by a sense of obligation or the beliefs and expectations of others.  The deceptively simple question: “what do I want to do?” is one that most architects find almost impossible to answer. Knowing what you want frees you from the destructive competitive cycle that was introduced to us in school and is reinforced in so many professional practices. Take time to actually know what you want helps you to overcome the self doubt and give yourself permission to take the steps that will help you live your dreams, not someone else’s.
Let go of ego
Our own judgements and beliefs, our ego holds us back more than anything.  It is what makes us stubborn, rigid, unaccepting, insistent, all of the things that cut that rut and keep us firmly entrenched within it.  Therefore, we comply with the world’s rules, the things we know we should do, while secretly resenting the fact that we have to do so.  Our ego is the source of should, one way to be our most inspired and best creative selves is to let go of all those expectations and give ourselves permission to be bad.

How have you explored the virtue of living outside of expectations?  In what creative freedoms have you allowed yourself to indulge? It's self-restorative, not selfish - and that allows you to give even more back to the world because you can and not because you should.

What’s Disprupting You?

We’re at week three of novena one: Turning Points and Breaking Points.  We’ve focussed on week one in negative influences that arise in the workplace, and in week two on how personal setbacks can affect us.  This week, the spotlight turns within as we explore the ways we limit ourselves.

What’s your excuse?  We all have one, “I could do more if...” We blame our busy schedule; stress, the fact that we needed to do a load of laundry, on why we aren’t making time to be our creative best.  The trouble with seeing your job, energy level, or other commitments as roadblocks is that these things are just never going to go away.  If you stay stuck in this thought process, you will never achieve your goals, never advance your career.  So, if we have to accept a certain amount of life to get in our way as a constant, how do we contain all those time and energy demands so that they don’t drain us?

See things that never were
I love the concept of the “disruptive hypothesis,” as discussed by Luke Williams for Fast Company.  A disruptive hypothesis essentially involves framing a question not around a reasonable cause and effect prediction as with traditional research, but questioning why the relationship between A and B needs to exist at all.  There are several steps to creating that innovative spark and they all involve challenging the status quo:
1.   Is your industry really your industry? We’ve discussed how blue ocean strategy thinking can be used to lead us away from competition and towards creative solutions that get traction because they serve previously undefined markets and needs.  http://thepatronsaintofarchitecture.blogspot.com/2010/09/is-your-ocean-red-or-blue.html The assumption isn’t that everyone needs to compete with the same resources in the same way for the same market.  Instead, you can create new markets and new relationships.

2.   Remember what they say about making assumptions... Disruptive hypotheses provoke us to question standards and norms, the assumptions that put us in a box and disrupt innovation.  As Williams puts it- question the chiches.  Sometimes these “norms” we work within are so second nature that questioning them can be difficult.  You really have to diagram every step of the process, of say designing a project, and ask yourself what would happen if you shortened, lengthened, or eliminated one or more of the steps.  This works well as a tool for diagramming how you typically spend your day as well.  How many needless steps are you taking that eliminate time for things that would feed your soul and spark your creativity?

Time, managed
Our biggest downfall as creatives is our ingrained failure to place a value on our time.  Perhaps this comes from our days in the studio where professors encouraged the all-nighter and we were introduced to the idea of constantly second guessing our ideas.  As we move forward into practice, we repeatedly provide clients with multiple options and encourage the design and redesign cycle.  This is enough of a downward spiral, but is becomes completely toxic when we cross over into devaluing our time in every aspect of our lives.  Mike Myatt, a leadership coach, has some great insights into this phenomenon and how to better value the resource that is our time that I have adapted to relate to our life as architects:
1.   Make space for creativity by allowing yourself to focus.  It can be difficult enough to hit your “zone” without being constantly being dragged down by distractions.  I know it’s bad when I read and reread the same sentences over and over without comprehending them because I am reading with my eyes while my mind is literally thinking of a hundred other things (how is that even possible?). I start to seek out activities that are distractions as a cover for the fact that I am distracted.  Multitasking is overated.  Make the time to do just one thing and allow yourself to be in that moment. That includes unplugging yourself from the world of electronica and its siren call to check the latest updates.

2.   Be organized and plan.  It seems counterintuitive to plan creativity, but this seeming oxymoron is actually the formula for jumpstarting your brain.  Make a plan and stick to it. We trawl around in our heads constantly monitoring our every movement, word and gesture.  The running loop of “shoulds” inside our heads so restricts our behavior that we exhaust ourselves doing it all yet getting nowhere - or at least not to any truly fulfilled somewhere.  It also leads us right to the derailment of procrastination.

3.   Meaningfully connect- and disconnect.  Engaging others fuels your thought process.  Collaboration is essential for architects.  But there is a difference between collaborating and sitting through the time suck of a boring unproductive meeting.  If an activity isn’t going to further an effort, don’t go there.  Learn how and when to say yes and no to avoid being sidetracked into activity that doesn’t accomplish your project goals, organizational goals or life goals.

Fear of Failing

We hate to fail so much that we go to any lengths to avoid it.  Even when that means holding back our potential, leaving ideas unexplored and not trusting our inner voice.  We forget that failure is how we learn.  Just watch your average baby learning to walk and you can see that.  The desire to try new things and work at them until we get them right is hardwired into our biology, and yet we spend so much of our time trying to suppress that when we become adults.  Would you tell a child learning to ride a bike that they should never expect to fall?

There is an old adage that you should take action now and apologize later, often paraphrased as asking forgiveness instead of waiting for permission. I take issue with the words apologize and forgiveness, because they imply that if you take a risk and fail, that you should somehow be sorry for what you have done.  Maybe you shouldn’t be sorry.  When we fail, it is because we are doing these three things which ultimately are critical to our success:

Connecting the dots
Seeing the bigger picture and pattern within it is key to understanding a larger need that your design should meet.  If you myopically solve the small problem right in front of you, your solution is like to create more problems through unintended consequences or quickly become obsolete. Reaching out beyond the culture of a firm, interacting with non-architects in your community, building social bridges, all lead to opportunities and experiments.  Launching a new venture or bringing that possibility back to your boss can seem scary because it is so experimental.  So can convincing clients to go down an unproven path.  However, seeing relationships between conventionally unrelated elements leads to greater design relevance.

Moving outside of your comfort zone
It’s really easy to do what others expect of you.  It’s really hard to go beyond and do what you expect of you.  You may have buried your own goals and aspirations so deeply after years of working that you can’t even remember them anymore.  So, while you complain about the slow death of your creative spirit, you also pull up your chair to the comfy fire that is the boundaries of other people’s expectations.  Being willing to take a step back and challenge conventional assumptions is the only path to innovation.  Having the courage to challenge yourself and make a bold move is terrifying and exhilarating at the same time because you just don’t know what will happen.  People with inquiring minds look at a situation but are not blinded by all of the rules that govern that situation  By seeing the world differently and asking they arrive at ways of defining a problem that no one else considered.

Taking a stand
When something really matters to you, you want to be an advocate for it.  Whether that is a common goal you share with a client or pro-bono work you wish to do to help your community or the planet.  You might be pretty good at this outside of the office, but what would happen if you incorporated these same passions and beliefs into your work?  Would it make you more passionate?  Define you as an architect more fully? Attract some really great clients?

You didn’t become an architect to slog away at mediocre tasks fixated on minimum standards and  simply meeting expectations.  The world needs you to innovate and soar and give them great spaces that support the way we live work and play.  In fact, when you look at risk taking from this perspective there is no such thing as a failure, only a learning experience that brought you to a major career breakthrough.

Alchemy and Architecture: How rich is your perspective?

What’s your point of view? How is it the same as or different from that of the users who will inhabit your design? How is it perhaps still different from that of your client?

In quite a few recent posts, I’ve discussed the idea that architects need to provide a value beyond just our traditional scope of services in order to stay relevant. This value often comes with the ability to harness and master data from its collection to application on the project. However, as we go boldly forward with integrated project delivery, evidence based design and quantifications of value associated with sustainability (green) and productivity (lean), it is all too easy to feel that creativity must emerge in spite of - not because of - these constraints. No, you are not off the hook in terms of shifting your practice model to incorporate the aforementioned value streams. You are being challenged to be more than an information generator and processor (overwhelming and boring). Too much of our time and energy is wasted feeling besieged yet unchallenged and uninspired.

The value of the architect in today’s world lies in his or her ability to synthesize. An excellent series of articles by Jon Kolko for Fast Company based on his book, Exposing the Magic of Design, caught my attention because they address precisely what makes us creative, as well as how we can allow our creativity to get lost in translation by being overly concerned about process and data. Kolko uses the term “sensemaking,” which has its roots in behavioral psychology, even going so far as to term the act of design as applying bias. We’re conditioned to view it as a four-letter word, but it’s impossible for anyone not to process the world through their individual filters. Bias represents the personal perspective of the individual designer, and the more interesting their perspective, the more likely they are to bring an exciting design solution to the table. Neutralizing your bias is the equivalent of dumbing down your work. Allow yourself to value the explorer inside of you, to question the status quo and to feel that pushing the envelope is not just OK but necessary.

Being creative begins with being inspired. Being inspired comes from allowing yourself to ask what if? That’s a scary concept, and when we don’t know where to begin, we start following all the rules of design and allow constraints to eliminate creativity by a depressing process of attrition. We fail to approach the subject with fresh eyes, disgruntled that we are doing “another” (fill in blank) and have clients that only care about getting the most amount of building for the least amount of cost. How could anything innovative ever hope to arise out of this attitude?

While budget is certainly a serious concern on every project, our clients want to build the best buildings they can, not the cheapest or most adequate. They want a solution that works for them and supports the activities that need to take place. They understand the difference between cost and value, but they will also uphold cost as a determinant when design seems too wayward and devoid of value. They are relying on your vision to take a quagmire of facts, needs, data and requirements and start to connect the dots to form a solution. That is the alchemy of architecture, to transform a bunch of information into a design strategy that supports an underlying project mission. To apply your vision and design the spaces that make people better.

Those voices you hear are the angels in the architecture, and you have to let them sing.

Are You a Brand or a Commodity?

It’s easy in this economy to adopt a “whatever it takes” approach to getting work. Believe it or not, this actually can cost you projects because clients are looking for a team who can meet their needs, not just undercut the competition. If you have been going after any RFP that moves and buying jobs, stop. Right now. You might think, “What if I don’t do these things, and my competition does, and I lose the work?” You should worry about what would happen if you do these things and you win it.

You will have just reduced your practice: expertise, resources, and professional judgment to a commodity. No one values a commodity. No one has “commodity loyalty.” Commodity work is demoralizing. It is all about spending the least amount of time to get the most marginally acceptable and cheapest design. It is antithetical to our whole purpose as architects and frankly, makes us obsolete. Do enough of this work and you have a portfolio that only lets you continue to downward spiral. If you aren’t contributing inspired, designed solutions, what purpose do you really serve?

The same goes for the firms that give away their services, producing good designs and being attentive to clients, but at a huge loss just for the privilege of doing the work. Their desperation makes them a doormat. If you really look at these projects, they are filled with unnecessary compromises and lack true integrity because the architect did not command the client’s respect. Post mortems on these projects often show a great deal of time (and un-billable hours) spent like a dog chasing its tail pursuing every little whim and without any real control of the process of design.

I am not advocating arrogance. Nor am I recommending an approach so high minded that you essentially offer your clients a take it or leave it ultimatum. I would suggest that you do some very honest soul-searching. What do you really want to achieve in your practice? Has this deep seated reason for being been communicated to your staff, consultants and clients? Do they believe in it too? This core belief is your brand. It is unwavering in good economic times and bad, project type to project type, project delivery method to project delivery method. Your brand should be the rationale behind every decision you make, large or small, internally and externally.  It is what makes a client excited to work with you and motivated to collaborate as a team to produce an inspired design solution.


Know your brand.
Don't take actions that compromise your brand out of desperation.
Believe in your brand. 
Be amazing.

How Was Your Stay?

First, a confession: I do not specialize in hotel design. I design, research and program healthcare projects. While hospitals have certainly tried in recent years to embrace the aesthetics of hotel design to create a more welcoming and less institutional environment, I think that the synergy between these two archetypes goes far deeper. More than imitation, this is a fusion spawned by recent trends in healthcare that creates an opportunity for both industries:

Trend 1: A hospital stay does not make you “all better”

Patients admitted to hospitals are sicker than ever before due in large part to the fact that so many procedures can be performed on an outpatient basis. You need to have had a significant illness, catastrophic accident or major surgery to qualify as an inpatient today. Simultaneously, hospitals have come under pressure from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services as well as insurance companies to shorten lengths of stay. Discharged inpatients therefore, may still be in a precarious state of health.

Trend 2: Both caregivers and patients are getting older.

The increase in the elderly population is also a factor in the ability of a discharged patient to function at a very high level upon discharge. All of this places added burden on the caregiver(s), who may themselves have compromised health.

Trend 3: Consumers are driving the healthcare marketplace.

Patients and their families are realizing that they have choices. They are demanding convenience, access, responsiveness and amenity from their healthcare providers. Many hospitals are beginning to provide concierge service to VIP patients. Additionally, families often want short term child care, reference libraries, and better food choices. 

Trend 4: A greater emphasis on wellness and prevention has emerged

Many healthcare systems are now offering alternative and complementary therapies such as massage, yoga and acupuncture. They are also expanding campus design to include things like on-site walking or fitness trails, and community education rooms within the facility.

Many major hospitals are served by nearby hotels, including some franchises directly owned by the healthcare institution and located on-campus, and I see an opportunity do more than provide accommodations for families during a hospital stay or a convention venue. As a building type, hotels are consumer oriented and focused on the total guest experience. Designers of hotel environments as well as their clients understand the value of positive distraction and captivating guests during their stay.

As healthcare clients shift their focus from purely functional spaces to ones that incorporate evidence-based design strategies, the connection between the environment and the health of patients and performance of staff is undeniable. Market trends have also necessitated a re-evaluation of traditional business models and rethinking of the spectrum of services provided. Healthcare design teams are working with owners to create spaces that are relaxing and comforting, perhaps even inspirational, instead of clinical. Collaboration with hotel designers could produce inspired hybrid architecture that also results in construction and operational savings for both due to the ability to share spaces and create operational efficiencies. Hotels already know how to offer excellent amenities that can seamlessly integrate with the goal of a healthcare institution such as wellness services and alternative therapies for both patients and families, in spas, gyms and grounds, venues for educational an community classes, and possibly even providing a transitional environment for discharged inpatients who may not be fully ready to return home. An inpatient room and a hotel room are not that dissimilar after all.

Why Bother?

I was recently asked why this blog was not more focused on "real" design issues, did not include many images and kept talking about all kinds of business stuff.  My answer is that you don't need all that to be inspired.  Inspiration is rooted in knowing yourself, believing in your ideas and sharing them with others.  In the design world, there are plenty of print and digital publications covering who's who and what's cool, but none of them address how to effectively structure projects and communicate with clients.  In other words, how to inspire them with your ideas.  

So many architects I know have become "corporatized" and somewhat despondent because they feel that in order to please their client that they can't challenge them.  They stop being creative and lose their spirit.  At the same time, the client is afraid to take risks because they don't understand how a different point of view can work.  This creates a vicious cycle of projects that follow all the rules, but lack true innovation. 

In the Catholic church, patron saints are protectors, guardians and guides.  It is my hope that by sharing ideas about how to approach, manage and communicate design ideas that I can help others to realize that great design is always possible no matter what the project size or type. 

Is Your Ocean Red or Blue?

Have you ever thought about how architecture is practiced?  Why so many architects are just not very collegial with one another and our professional organizations serve more as a source for legal documents, status, and continuing education instead of as a true collaborative resource?  Maybe you just naturally assume that you have to compete, after all work pays the bills.  Our profession has accepted the premise of a business strategy called Red Ocean (think blood in the water),  that assumes at its core that we can only win if everyone else loses.  Our work becomes a product or commodity and offering more of it for less is the only way to stay ahead of the game (sound familiar to how we undercut our fees and lose money on jobs to keep or get a client?) 

A more recent strategy to emerge turns that premise on its head.  Called the Blue Ocean strategy, it asks us to rethink the idea of beating the competition and instead examine that for which we are actually competing.  In other words, is the prize really worth it?  Are we decimating ourselves just to win?

By looking at who we really are and what we really want to do; we can, according to Blue Ocean thinking, define a new market that we can serve with the full force of our individual talent and passion.  It seems almost too good to be true.  I am transported back to my days as an idealistic student full of dreams and ambition, not the soul-crushing professional environment that awaits said student ideologues.  

Of course, there is a catch: you have to actually be innovative (and not too risk-adverse either). In a Blue Ocean paradigm, the focus is on the value of what we have to offer and finding a market that is actually seeking that value.  No building industry, creating niche markets requiring hyper-specialization is not the point, it's about innovation.  Innovation that also takes into account utility, price and cost in an attempt to make competition irrelevant.  That's something that we have a hard time with, because we want to keep designing buildings, and so do all the other architects. Also,blue ocean is an ideal that may not prove lasting. Mohammad Jamil of the Change Management Community is his article "Red and Blue Ocean Strategy" argues that the two strategies are in fact interdependent and cyclical, with blue oceans driving innovation, which in turn drives the red ocean competition that will eventually spawn more innovation.  I think that what matters most is that we realize that we are not constrained by the "way things are" and instead start asking a lot more critical questions:

1. What are you really trying to achieve and why?
2. To whom will it matter?
3. Can you abandon old habits and dependencies?

Stop swimming with the sharks and chart a course to peaceful waters.  When survival isn't the primary issue, it's amazing what you can achieve.

Are You an Outlier?

What does it take to be truly innovative?  The most succesful innovators actually redefine the staus quo and move the bar for the rest of the design world.  These outliers and their seemingly fringe ideas catch on and displace  established expectations and ways of doing things.  They find a way to create new synergies between things that previously seemed unrelated.  They define issues that others just worked around as actual problems and work to solve them.    It's always a risk to be an early adapter http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_rogers_innovation_adoption_curve.html because you might ride that wave head first right into the sandbar  but, really to make a difference as architects, we need to embrace our status as outliers.